Program Content
PROGRAM CONTENT BIOS: CREATIVE TEAM Chris Lashua, Creative Director / Founder Company founder, Chris Lashua, hails from Boston, Massachusetts, where he spent most of his youth riding on a BMX bike. He was discovered by Cirque du Soleil and created/performed a BMX bike act that was entirely his own. He was then commissioned to build a “German Wheel” piece for the company, cementing his reputation as a visionary of circus gadgetry. His engineering chops and creative energy led him to 'run away' with his own circus company, Cirque Mechanics. Chris believes that innovative mechanical apparatus and the relationship between performer and machine sets his company apart and is at the heart of what makes Cirque Mechanics unique. Chris has delivered on this unique relationship in Birdhouse Factory and Boom Town the company’s two theatrical productions and in Cirque Mechanics for the Orchestra, Chris explored the performer machine relationship with the Gantry Bike, a self-contained, pedal driven mechanical stage, worthy of the grand classical music featured in that show. Once again, Chris continues to build on the might of the Gantry Bike, in Pedal Punk, by adding newly designed, inventive pedal driven devices that interact with the performers. In Pedal Punk, Chris masterfully merges his passion for cycling, circus and all things mechanical in an exceptionally playful and artful way. Aloysia Gavre, Co-Director / Choreographer An original co-director and choreographer of Birdhouse Factory, Boom Town and Cirque Mechanics for the Orchestra, also an early member of the San Francisco based Pickle Family Circus, Aloysia has been a movement, dance and circus enthusiast most of her life.
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